Contending with the dreaded higher education rejection slip

Almost a third of applications are unsuccessful

Lucie Rychla

The pipe-dreams of close to 30,000 would-be students sprang a leak today as only 65,298 of this year’s 93,924 higher education applications have been successful, although there are still a number of courses available including (as you might have guessed from the metaphor) ones in plumbing and amenity water management.

There are only a limited number of places available for every course – with interest in medicine and law particularly high this year.

READ MORE: Record number of higher education applications

High grades needed!
The most competitive study programs – when it comes to needing a high grade average – tend to be offered by Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and the University of Copenhagen (UC).

International business at CBS and molecular biomedicine (UC) required grade averages of 12.3 and 12.1 respectively – a mission impossible given the highest grade you can get (since 2007) has been 12!

While international business and politics at CBS (11.7), psychology at UC (11.4) and business economics at CBS (11.3) also have tough requirements.

Nevertheless, the most popular course in the country was medicine at the University of Southern Denmark, which received the most applications with 2,627.

Long lists for shorter courses
This year, more students than in the past (52,529) preferred to enroll on shorter education programs at a business academy or a vocational college as opposed to those who applied for a study program at one of Denmark’s universities (41,395).

The number of applicants for nursing education, for instance, has more than doubled since 2007 to 5,600 applicants.

Education should lead to job
Camilla Hutters from the Danish Evaluation Institute explained that young people are increasingly more often seeking education that can provide them with a job.

And the education minister, Esben Lunde Larsen, was swift to commend  students for making more realistic choices when it comes to their education.

“It is encouraging to see more people choosing an education that is in demand in the job market,” Larsen told Jyllands-Posten.

“Denmark is a country of production, and so it is important we educate young people who can support it.”

READ MORE: Too many graduates with a master’s in unemployment

 

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